


Standing out from the crowd

by SarunoHadaki



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Out, DQXI ensemble, El suffers 2k21, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, the gang's all here but I'm not tagging all of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29539536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarunoHadaki/pseuds/SarunoHadaki
Summary: I first saw him while at the state fair. What I wasn’t expecting was to see him again and again and again, almost like fate was telling me we had to meet.Blue boy had on a hoodie and a pair of ripped jeans. Earrings glittered on his ears. He was cool, probably too cool to talk to a square like me. But he had an irresistible energy to him, something resonating with me on a level I couldn’t comprehend.They walked by without even noticing me, though I’m a little glad for that, as I was probably making a weird face.I wanted to put him out of my mind, as itmusthave just been a coincidence that I saw him twice, but thenit kept happening.Everywhere I went, my eyes landed on him like a homing beacon. I nevermeantfor it to happen, it justdid.
Relationships: Camus | Erik & Hero | Luminary
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. Upchucking on Chuck Taylors

The first time I spotted him, I was waiting in line to ride the Zipper. Gemma was on my shoulder, yapping away to Serena and Veronica about one thing or another, as I chewed on a piece of gum and arched my neck up to stare at the strange, car-shaped metal death traps we were about to willingly lock ourselves into. I wonder who decided it would be a good idea to attach a grate to one side so you could see through to the outside and worry about the thing swinging open on you while it was tilting back and forth while _also_ following a long, oval-shaped trajectory. If it swung open, you’d surely go flying if it weren’t for the plastic arm that shuts around your lap.

“Right, Ellie?” Gemma asked, patting my arm.

“Uh-huh,” I said. I blew up a huge, pink bubble, and let it pop on my open lips.

I had, at that point, mastered the art of ignoring her. That was how our relationship worked, you see. She was like a sister to me, and yeah, maybe she had unspoken feelings toward me, but, _sorry to say,_ they were utterly unrequited.

Not that I was going to tell her that.

“Did you hear me?” Gemma asked, huffing.

“Yeah,” I said, turning fully to her that time, as her grip on my arm started to turn toward bruising.

_That’s_ when I spotted something blue waving around in the line in front of us. At first, I wrote it off as just a stuffed animal or something, seeing as it was sky blue, but then it turned and there was a face attached to the other side. Granted I couldn’t get a good view of said face, but I knew it was white as the moon and beautiful.

Pah, whatever. I’m a simple man who’s supposed to go on dates with blond-haired girls with long eyelashes and nice personalities.

“Goddess above, can’t you pay attention for _one second?”_ Veronica growled.

“Sorry?” I said, smiling.

I was so, so glad the twins were here to create a buffer between me and Gemma. I loved her, just… not so much at that moment. It was spring break and the last thing I wanted to do was follow her around the state’s spring fair, through a carnival that a unicorn had thrown up all over, everything painted blue, yellow, pink, red, purple, green — any color but the silver metal is supposed to be.

It was still fairly early in the afternoon, so the lights hadn’t gone on yet, but that was the part I was looking forward to. When crowds would swarm the place and make it nearly impossible to move without butting elbows with strangers, lights blinking all around you, a seizure waiting to happen. Crowds are where I can feel my loneliest and not at the same time.

It also just happens to be the best place to _accidentally_ get separated from your friends.

But right now, I was listening to Gemma talk about the peach cobbler she’d recently made and how Arbor day was coming up and “are you doing anything, El? Want to plant trees at the park with me?”

“Sure,” I said, if just to placate her.

“Next!” A man called, and we climbed up the platform and into one of the metal cages, Gemma and I on one side and Serena and Veronica on the other.

I wish I could say the ride was _fun,_ but mostly it was just me being screamed at by three girls as we spun around, sideways and right-side-up, rinse and repeat, until we came out of it wobbling on our feet. It got my heart racing, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t _scary_ enough to warrant me screaming.

We settled on playing some games after that, including the high striker, which we all got abysmal scores at, the ball and bucket toss, and ring toss. I put forward a few bucks for a game of darts and once I was set loose on the balloon board, I couldn’t stop throwing the darts, smiling to myself with each _pop_ of a vanquished balloon.

“Stop being so good at this!” Gemma whined.

“I’ll stop being good when _you_ stop being trash,” I teased, lifting my head to sneer at her.

_That’s_ when I saw him for the second time, walking around with a blue-haired girl — his sister? — on one shoulder and a heavier set fellow dressed ostentatiously in stripes and jewelry on the other. Blue boy had on a hoodie and a pair of ripped jeans. Earrings glittered on his ears. He was cool, probably too cool to talk to a square like me, but had an irresistible energy to him, something that resonated with me on a level I couldn’t comprehend.

They walked by without even noticing me, though I’m a little glad for that, as I was probably making a weird face.

I wanted to put him out of my mind, as it _must_ have just been a coincidence that I saw him twice, but then _it kept happening._ Everywhere I went, my eyes landed on him like a homing beacon. I never _meant_ for it to happen, it just _did_.

I passed him on the way to the Twin Dragon and later at the Starstrip 3000. I saw him at the concession stands and at the line for the bathroom. We were even in the same group to board the Tilt-a-Whirl. The final straw was seeing him on the swings, zooming above me, _just_ far away enough that I couldn’t grab his ankle and yank his sorry ass down to me.

That’s when I decided to enact my nefarious plan and “got lost,” taking the opportunity to scour every edge of the grounds, nearly trampling a toddler and elbowing a few unfortunate teens who were walking too slowly in front of me. I’ve made it sound like I kept running into him because the area was small, but in truth, it was not easy to cover, especially with so many other people in the damn way.

Eventually, I had to stop to catch my breath, hunched over and panting next to the ticket station, brushing my shoulder-length hair out of my face.

What a cruel twist of fate, that when I was finally free to search the area as I’d liked, I couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Eleven!” Gemma shouted from over the crowds, and my heart fell into the popcorn-riddled dirt when I looked up and saw the three girls running up to me. “ _There_ you are!”

Veronica pinched my cheek at the sad face I was making.

“Awww, were you wowwied yow mommy wouldn’t find you?” she teased.

“No,” I said. Frankly, it was the complete opposite.

“Are you feeling alright? I have some water here,” Serena said and pulled an unopened Dasani from the purse slung around her shoulder.

I took it gratefully, chugging some of it. “Thanks,” I said as I handed it back.

“What say you to one last ride, hm?” Veronica asked.

“What did you have in mind?” Serena asked back.

“The _Ring of Fire,”_ Veronica said and pointed to the large metal circle in the center of the fairground, spotlights shooting off into the night sky, three American flags waving at the very top. A car quickly spun its way up to the top of the hoop and hung, upside down, for a few seconds before rolling back down. Just imagine the view from up there, even if it _was_ upside down! You’d be able to see the whole carnival from up there.

“Let’s do it,” I said, clenching my hands.

There were virtually no lines for any of the rides anymore, with all the families already gone to tuck their young’uns into bed. A few young adults, like us, were left to enjoy the Ring of Fire on our own, though it took a little goading to get Gemma to join us.

I screamed a little while riding the Ring of Fire, namely because it pushed the air out of my lungs when we swung around. My brain started to feel like one of the balloons I had popped earlier that night, though my skull hadn’t gotten the memo that this was its cue to deflate. My eyes spun inside their sockets. My stomach felt like a barrel full of water, sloshing around once we disembarked from the ride, my dizzy eyes taking a second to whir around, registering the warm yellows of the carnival lights.

But then I saw a flash of blue.

Not just _any_ flash of blue, but a particular shade, one I had been chasing _all night._

I’m a very determined person. Once I set my mind on something, nothing can stop me from getting it. I choose to control my own fate, no matter how much sweat, blood, and tears I have to invest.

Little did I know I would soon add vomit to that list.

I started running like my life depended on it, nearly collapsing in the gravel when my head tipped forward. I heard the girls screaming after me, but I knew that if I stopped running something terrible would happen, like I might faint, and I couldn’t let that happen before I’d reached him.

“Excuse me!” I shouted, and I sounded drunk, my mouth watering.

They kept walking, ignoring my call, so I tried again.

“HEY!” I shouted, and this time they _did_ turn around.

I kind of really wish they hadn’t.

The blue-haired guy looked even more attractive up close, his thin eyebrows raised up on his face. He crossed his arms and stared at me levelly. The girl next to him popped pink cotton candy into her mouth while his friend frowned at me.

I froze in front of them, still panting, heart thudding faster than humanly possible in my chest. I felt seconds away from seizing up and falling over like a shocked goat.

As I mustered the guts to say something, my stomach heaved. When I opened my mouth, the greasy pretzel I had consumed earlier took that moment to exact its revenge and I leaned over, emptying my stomach onto blue boy’s shoes. There was a terrible _hwuuuuck_ sound and I tugged on my hair to keep it out of my face.

“What the _fuck,_ man?” blue boy asked, arms stretched wide, as he stared down at his ruined shoes.

They were black converse, hi-top, with the star and everything. They could have been brand new for all I knew. And I’d puked _all over_ them.

Goddess, take me now. I’m ready for my funeral.

“El!” Serena screamed from behind me, and I heard her shoes scrape against the gravel as she stopped, yanking a tissue from her bag, dabbing at my face.

Tears squeezed from the corner of my eyes. “I’m _so sorry—”_

“What on _goddess’ green earth_ are you _doing?!”_ Veronica yelled.

Do I need to say more? Everything descended into chaos after that. Blue girl started cackling, nearly choking on her cotton candy, as Veronica started jabbing a finger at my crush as if this was all somehow his fault, his buddy jumping in to defend him. I pulled my hands up to cover my face, trapping Serena’s kerchief between my palms and wet eyes, as Gemma patted me consolingly on the back.

“I think we all need to calm down,” Serena said.

She managed to deescalate the situation, offering to pay for a new pair of kicks so blue boy didn’t have to be so put off by the fact that I’d desecrated his pair. He agreed, and she coughed over the cash, my face burning the whole time. I couldn’t say anything except _sorry, sorry,_ over and over again, until even Serena shushed me.

On the ride home, I leaned my throbbing head against the cool glass of the car window, watching the lights whizz past me in the dark, as Veronica asked: “What were you _thinking?!”_

“I wasn’t,” I said.


	2. Scaring the Star Lord

“AAAIIIIEEE!”

Sylvando screeched in my ear, jolting back violently, crushing my forearm in his unexpectedly strong grip.

I just grinned devilishly as we descended further into the haunted house, green lights receding into a pit of darkness sprinkled with a few well-timed monster roars and screams.

This was _just_ what I needed after a long week of studying for midterms: the cries of others being scared out of their skin while I followed along with a smile on my lips. It’s simple schadenfreude, a German word meaning to take joy in someone else’s misfortune, which was _all_ I was doing at 7 p.m. at Nightfall, where for November an old town is turned into a Halloween scarefest, complete with chainsaw-wielding murderers, bloody clowns, and a host of dressed-up visitors.

Jade had invited me to join her, Hendrik, and Sylv to check out some of the haunts, as the town had several routes we could navigate, including the “frightful infirmary” and the “deathly cemetery.” They had non-scary attractions too, of course, which I was also grateful for, as I figured out after the first few mazes that I wasn’t as easily frightened as I thought.

For one, whenever I led the pack, my chances of being shocked went way down because the actors often waited for the first person to pass through before screaming at the cowards following in the back. And secondly, I simply didn’t find them all that scary. Sure, I flinched a few times, but I don’t think the actors appreciated the way I stared blankly back at them every time they tried to get a reaction out of me.

Hendrik was the same way, so at least I wasn’t alone in the struggle to attain frightetude. Jade and Sylv had started concocting ways to scare us, usually with a few half-hearted slaps on the shoulders when we weren’t expecting it. On our brochures, we discovered that the mazes had a ranking system, so we chose to pursue some of the five-star scary scenes, but still nothing but a few jumps here and there for me.

The same could not be said of Sylv and Jade.

“Helloooo, sonny! Wanna be my next experiment?” An actor — ahem, _scientist —_ screamed as we reached the basement of the haunted house. A creature basked in shadow rattled a cage a little distance away, fog wafting around its feet.

“Noooo!” Sylv screamed, reeling away when the man lifted a syringe toward his face.

They weren’t allowed to touch us — this was a family-friendly place, after all — but I wished they could, so that soured it for me a little. I nudged Sylvando forward, and when he refused to move, I stepped forward and strolled through the rest of the scene like it wasn’t there at all, Sylv hustling after me.

I passed a crevice with an actor lying in wait, a grin curling up on my lips when they didn’t hop out at me. Sylv missed the person completely. It was Jade, third in line, to face the person’s otherworldly howl. I turned back just in time to bear witness to her nearly clocking them in the face, Hendrik swooping in at the last second to tear her fist away from the stranger’s nose.

“I’m sorry!” Jade screamed as she hurried to catch up with us.

We climbed some stairs and stepped into a long, dark corridor that led outside. When we finally stepped out into the cool air, Sylv let go of my arm and I sighed with relief. He fiddled with the plumage strapped to his back, making sure there weren’t any ruffled feathers, _ha_. Hendrik was nonplussed in his full clown suit, while Jade looked dashing in her princess costume.

I wiped my hands on my long leather jacket. I’d decided to dress up as the star lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah, maybe I was a little lazy and had just gone out and bought a long, maroon leather jacket and called it a day, but I looked _cool._

“Anyone hungry yet?” Sylv asked, voice quivering slightly.

“Absolutely,” Jade said. “And please, no popcorn this time. I need something more filling.”

I nodded, following Hendrik as he led us toward the center square where all the shops and restaurants were. We weaved our way past Superman and Moana when my eyes came across the scariest thing I’d seen all night, my heart jumping into my throat.

It was blue boy, dressed from head to toe in an elaborate pirate costume, an eye patch strapped over one blue eye, collar popped up to rub against his cheeks, shoulders puffing out from his red overcoat. A few sashes hugged his waist, accentuating his slimness. He was talking to his sister, hand nonchalantly running a hand through his blue spikes.

“ _Sylv_ ,” I gasped urgently. It was my turn to grab him bruisingly by the arm, yanking him to a stop.

“What is it, honey?” Sylv asked, furrowing his brow.

“Blue boy,” I said, glaring at him.

“Blue who?” Sylv asked.

“Guys, go on without us,” I said, jerking my head back to Jade and Hendrik, while I pulled Sylv away, willing him to follow me as I pursued the guy’s red coattails.

“What is it?” Jade asked, following us, Hendrik hot on my trail too.

A lot had happened since I last saw blue boy. For one, I had come out to my family, telling them I was gay. And two, as a result of one, Gemma was relegated to sister status again. I had gone on exactly _one_ date since the revelation and it had ended so horribly that I was starting to consign myself to the fact that I would probably die alone, though Sylv had been encouraging me to try again.

It was all blue boy’s fault. He had been the catalyst for my major personal realization, but then I suppose that's what happens after you run into the same face a dozen times and never once stop to consider your attraction anything more than _natural_.

So, yes, I was _naturally_ attracted to him, even if he, quite reasonably, hated me.

"Ellie, darling, what's that matter?" Sylv asked, pulling his arm back as I desperately tried to drag him into the haunted doll museum I had seen blue boy stroll into.

I turned around, my cheeks flaming. "It's _blue boy,"_ I said.

"Who's— _oooh,"_ Sylv said, realization dawning on his face.

"You mean the gentleman you got sick on last April?" Hendrik asked.

I nodded. Unfortunately, the story had become legendary among our friend group. I made sure never to explain why I had run up to blue boy like that, but it must have been pretty obvious when I came out of the closet a week later.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get him," Jade said, and I nodded, despite the butterflies in my stomach.

I led them into the haunted doll museum, which was exactly what it sounds like. Quite a few porcelain dolls with names like Mary Ann and Elizabeth stared at us from behind glass cases. In another room, it was clowns. Their little plaques were typed up in red, dripping font, providing stories for each tiny demon.

Blue boy wasn't in the first room, nor was he in the second. I started to pick up the pace, thumping across the wooden floorboards to search for him. I was rounding one corner when something solid hit me in the chest and I unintentionally bulldozed over them in my momentum.

The whole floor shook when blue boy hit the floor. He stared up at me, jaw hanging open.

"Hey, it's Chucky!" Blue girl said. She stood next to him, her clothes all tattered. She made quite the good zombie.

“Hi,” I squeaked, trying not to screw my face up too much at the awful nickname.

Blue boy stood up, dusting himself off. "I don't have anything to say to you," he sneered. "C'mon Mia," he said, grabbed her hand, and dragged her away.

And just like that, the star lord was shot down and made a crash landing back to earth. I watched him go without protest, staring at Mia's eyes as they tore away from me to follow her brother.

"El! Don't just stand there, follow him!" Sylv said, shaking me.

I shook my head.

Blue boy probably thought I was following him around intentionally, like a creep. I would be pissed too if six months later I'd ran into the same weirdo who'd puked on me. And it was because I liked him. What if he was straight? Then that'd make me even more of an idiot, wouldn't it? Knowing my luck, he probably _was_ straight. Hell, I’d thought I was straight for most of my life.

I turned to my friends. "You were saying Jade, about food?" I asked. I tried for a smile.

"...Right. Come on, let's go," she said.

We left the museum and went straight to the main street again.

I don't know what I ever did to get on the goddess' bad side, but same as before, I kept running into him. For every monster that scared Sylv shitless, there was a spark of blue hair to get my heart palpitating. I wish I knew what bad karma I had accrued to be so unlucky and what I could do to reverse it. I succeeded at ignoring him after a little while and he managed to blend into the rest of the scenery, as omnipresent as the scar on the back of my left hand.

At the end of the night, Jade, Hendrik, Sylv, and I made it out to the parking lot and were canvassing the emptying lot for Hendrik's black F-150, easily finding it among the vehicles, when my eyes glanced to someone shouting across the way.

"Come on, you _were_ scared, weren't you?" Mia’s voice rang out as she cackled.

Blue boy said something back, but it was too low for me to hear. His eyes flitted to mine as he unlocked his red car and I turned away, covering my face with my hands.

"You okay?" Jade asked.

"Can we please get out of here?" I begged, climbing into the back seat, shutting the door behind me.

Sylv slid into the seat across from me, Jade taking the passenger seat while Hendrik took the wheel.

Sylv sighed. "I guess we failed to scare you _or_ Hennie tonight, hm?"

“On the contrary,” Hendrik said. “I think Eleven was sufficiently scared.”

“Scared of _boys,_ maybe,” Sylv teased, my cheeks heating.

“Oh Ellie,” Jade sighed, turning to look back at me as we pulled out of the lot.

“Don’t ‘Ellie’ me,” I whimpered, dragging my cheek across the cold window, staring at blue boy’s red car as we drove away. I wonder if they could see me staring.

“Just forget about him honey,” Sylv said, patting me on the arm. “There’s zero chance you’ll ever see him again anyway.”

“Yeah,” I said, but the throbbing in my chest was bittersweet.


	3. Making a Christmess

My body convulsed, overtaken with a shutter, and I yanked a little harder at the purple scarf wrapped around my neck.

“Och, I thought ye were made of tougher stuff, laddie!” Rab shouted next to me, noticing my shivering.

I rubbed my gloved hands together, fingers curling over my red nose. “I am!” I said. “Just give me a minute.”

We stood at a busy streetlight, waiting for the walkway to turn green so we could cross and reach the winter wonderland waiting for us on the other side. We were about to enter Silverbell Acres, a whole neighborhood dedicated to decking the halls with delightful decoration every Christmas. They had everything, from garlands and inflatable snowmen to lights suspended between light posts, synched up to blink in time to “Jingle Bell Rock,” which was played over speakers. If the carnival didn’t give you a seizure, that _certainly_ would.

I could see the blue and white lights of the entrance from our spot down the street, a few tall spruce trees peeking over everything with their colorful lights. The area was free for visitors to walk all over, with the streets corded off to keep vehicle traffic limited to only the neighborhood’s residents.

Children ran past us as the light turned green, parents shouting at them to hang back. I checked my brown coat to make sure all the buttons had been done up and Rab grinned up at me in his ugly Christmas sweater of a reindeer’s face, puffy red coat swinging unzipped from his stout frame.

I smiled back. I had been looking forward to this ever since I had initially gone with my friends a few days ago. I had scouted out the whole place and hadn’t run into blue boy once, so I was feeling confident that I would get to spend a peaceful evening chatting away with my favorite Scottish grandfather, telling him all about school now that I had finished my finals and was about to celebrate Christmas with the family.

Rab and I started off down the first lit-up street, watching a leashed wiener dog waddle past a cardboard cutout of Rudolf and a tastefully decorated house with white icicles hanging from the roof. Too bad there wasn’t any snow, though the forecast said we might get some tonight.

“Did ye hear? Frysabel’s set to get married!” Rab said.

“To Krystalinda, right?” I asked.

“Aye!”

“Wow,” I said. “Good for them.”

I was lucky that Rab and mum were receptive to my being gay. Rab liked to interject a sentence or two here and there to show I had his support and that I didn’t need to be shy about it, but so far nothing had ever come up where my sexuality really mattered, as I was still miserably single. As much as I would have liked to extend their dinner invitations to my special someone, such a person simply _didn’t exist._

Rab and I talked about our family friends a little longer, then I turned the conversation onto his woodworking hobby. He told me all about the furniture he’d been making recently, and how he was looking to replace his saw blade but was having trouble finding the right size. Then he told me about his meditating. He was very hyped about it and kept pestering me to try it out for myself.

I had a fun time hanging out with grandpa. He was so supportive and wise. I bet if I asked him about the blue-haired boy he would know exactly what to do.

We stopped in front of a yard completely covered in lights, the house behind buried in red and white bulbs. The place was more glass and plastic than wood, a risky, potentially flammable, combination.

I lifted my head and looked at the others joining us in staring when my eyes landed on a particular person.

A hood was pulled up over his head, brown fur framing his pink face, a long blue bang sticking out of his forehead. The green coat was unzipped, revealing a black turtleneck underneath. He stood next to his sister, who was pointing at something. I’d caught him staring and he whipped his head away immediately.

Oh no, not _again_. This couldn’t keep happening to me! This is the sort of thing that ends with a call to the police!

“Pops, can we grab a pretzel or something?” I asked Rab.

“Good idea,” he grinned. “I need the loo anyway,” he said, and followed me to where all the streets converged.

A few food trucks sat in the middle of the asphalt, vendors selling caramelized popcorn and apple cider as Christmas music blared over the loudspeakers. Rab slid off to find a bathroom while I stood next to a glowing igloo, a line of people waiting to get inside and take photos for their Instagrams.

I don’t think I’d ever seen blue boy acknowledge me first. It had always been me picking him out of the crowd like a blu raspberry DumDum before he realized I was looking. Was he becoming aware of me? Could I catch him looking at me again?

I glanced around, trying to do so casually. Then I spotted him standing across the way, leaning against a flagpole with his arms crossed. Some kids were jumping around nearby, sticking out their tongues, as wet mush started to fall from the sky.

He was alone. His eyes slid over to mine.

_What— What do I do?!_ I was completely unprepared for him to acknowledge me a second time without him running away or looking at least a little murderous. I really should have expected this, all things considered. It had been a few good weeks since our encounter in Nightfall, more than enough time for me to have sharpened my people skills, but instead, I just stood staring back like a fool.

I took a breath and started walking.

I sidled up to him, hands shoved into my pockets, keeping a healthy distance between us. My fingers itched in my warm gloves.

“Hello,” I said, looking into his sky blue eyes. “I don’t believe I’ve properly introduced myself. I’m El.”

“You just can’t leave me alone, can you?” blue boy asked, squinting. He frowned.

“I’m not trying to creep you out, I promise. It’s all coincidence.”

“You call all of _that_ a _coincidence_.”

“Yes!” I frowned at his disbelieving grimace. _“I swear on my parents’ graves,_ they were all coincidences.”

His eyebrows furrowed. He uncrossed his arms. “Your parents are dead? Shit man, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s— it’s okay! They died when I was really young.”

This is absolutely _not_ where I expected this conversation to go. My mind scrambled for a way to repair the situation. What was I even doing here? Well, talking to him, obviously, but what did I want from him? His number?

“Look, do I owe you money or something? What do you want from me?” he asked. He could read my _mind_.

He looked really pretty in the falling snow, like a fox. I stared at the way he placed a hand on his hip as he spoke, bringing a fingerless glove up to accentuate his point. How was he not freezing?

“Um… a _name_ would be nice,” I managed.

“Erik.”

He looked a little bored when he said it, like he’d expected me to already know. _Erik. Erik Erik Erik Erik Erik…_ I smiled. I was determined not to forget.

“Was that it, or…?”

“Are you, um…” I lifted my hands as I spoke, trying to untangle my nerves. “Do you date guys?” I felt like a part of me was on fire. My coat was starting to cook me from the inside like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Erik grinned and crossed his arms again. He lifted his chin at me. “Is _that_ what this is about? You stalk me like you’d follow me down to hell itself, but you don’t have the balls to ask me outright on a date?”

My cheeks burned. I frowned, eyebrows drawing down. Oh, you want to play it like _that?_

“Fine! If you don’t say yes to a date with me, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“Is that right?” He grinned.

“I’ve already proven myself quite capable of doing so, wouldn’t you say?” And it was my turn to smirk at him, crossing my arms.

“Hmm…” Erik hummed, looking me up and down as though considering his options. There really wasn’t much to see, as I was one big, brown square of insulated coat, purple scarf tucked under my chin. “Deal.” He held out his hand, making a grabby motion with his fingers. “Phone?”

_Oh my goddess._ This was actually happening. I did it! I pulled my phone from my coat, but the plastic rectangle caught on the lip of my pocket and tumbled from my fingertips, landing with a clatter on the wet pavement.

Erik snorted as I knelt down to pick my phone up. As I rose, I dropped it again, and he started laughing, clutching his stomach.

“Hey, it’s Chucky!” Mia shouted as she approached, and I rose my head from my crouched position, cheeks fuming.

“My name’s _El,”_ I said. Tears pricked my eyes. And definitely _not_ because I was dying inside but because it was so _cold._ Yeah, it was the cold’s fault.

Mia’s lips wobbled like she was going to start laughing too. I finally managed to stand, removing a glove to unlock my phone (which had come out of this unscathed,) and handed it to Erik.

“Laddie, there ye are!” Rab shouted as he ran up. He stopped, looking in awe at Erik. “Och, this wouldnae happen to be _blue boy,_ would it?”

“Blue boy, huh?” Erik teased as he handed my phone back. I shoved it into my coat before it could get away again. “I didn’t know we were already giving each other pet names.”

“No, that’s not—” I stopped, raising my hands to cover my cheeks. “It’s not like that.”

Erik laughed again, bringing his hands up to rub them together. It was only then that I realized his nails were painted black. Fuck, this man just _dripped_ with sex appeal. Or maybe I was just weird.

“Alright, I’ll get off your back. But call me sometime, alright?” he asked, and he winked before turning to stroll away, hands tucked into his coat, nudging Mia with his elbow to follow.

It’s a miracle I didn’t melt into a puddle right there, staring at his back as he walked away.

“Congratulations, laddie!” Rab said with a strong pat on my back as I grinned like it was Christmas morning.

“I have to tell everyone!” I said to Rab as I eagerly pulled my phone back out of my pocket.

I went to my text messages, reflexively tapping the top thread, where my best friends’ group chat sat. I typed up a quick message and sent it:

El: _guys, you won’t BELIEVE what just happened! I can finally die happy!!_

I sighed, grinning, before my eyes widened. I did a double take. The group’s past messages were missing and at the top it said “Erik.” Only then did I realize I had texted my newest contact, which appeared at the top of my list of messages. My hands shook as I typed out my next message.

El: _FUCK_

I could hear him laughing in the distance. Then my phone tinged and I looked down.

Erik: _LOLOLOL_

I closed my eyes, squeezing the message to my chest, and laughed.


End file.
